MARINA DEL REY, CA -- In 1949, Warner Bros. Studios brought Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead to the big screen. To mark the film's 50th anniversary, the Ayn Rand Archives will return it to a Hollywood movie screen at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
     Like The Fountainhead's incorruptible man of integrity, architect Howard Roark, Ayn Rand had to exercise her integrity during the making of the film.
     In a letter to Warner Bros. producer Henry Blanke, prior to the shooting of The Fountainhead, Rand warned him against compromising the integrity of the film: "You must believe the thesis of The Fountainhead in regard to its production. That thesis is not just fiction and it does not apply just to architects: man must act on his own judgment. You must produce The Fountainhead on your own independent, original, uninfluenced judgment. There is no other way to do anything well in any sphere of life -- and certainly not in this case. If you compromise and then hope to make a success of The Fountainhead by acting in a way exactly opposed to the way it teaches -- it is The Fountainhead itself that will defeat you."
     Rand followed her own advice during the production of The Fountainhead, making sure its theme of integrity was not sacrificed. Her conflict came to a climax when she discovered that director King Vidor was shooting a shortened version of the climactic courtroom speech, in which Roark defends the right of the individual to his life. Rand threatened to disassociate herself from the film if the speech was not delivered as she had written it. Blanke interceded and received orders from studio head Jack Warner that the speech was to be shot as written. To this day, the final speech in The Fountainhead remains one of the longest in cinematic history.
     The Academy Award-nominated documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life will be shown at 2 p.m. The first film about Ayn Rand's life, A Sense of Life explores Ayn Rand's creative sensibility. Director Michael Paxton and associate producer Jeff Britting will hold a brief Q & A period after the film. Following the showing of The Fountainhead, Britting, who is now the chief archivist of the Ayn Rand Archives, will deliver a 20-minute talk about Ayn Rand and her experiences on the set of The Fountainhead.
 
Click here for a photo of Ayn Rand, King Vidor, and Gary Cooper. (143 K)